Liz and I met when we both were in residence at Noniland Hawaiian Agricultural Research Center and Bee Sanctuary over New Year’s 2013. Her role was as a vegan and raw chef for guests, mine was artist-in-residence… the bottom line is that I reconnected with a soul sister in Kauai, one of my heart homes. It was magical! What I love about Liz is her quiet yet fierce dedication to the earth and her gourmet preparations of whole foods with such love and reverence—truly inspirational. One of the best cosmic giggles that we shared was learning that, unbeknownst to us, we were both at the same writers conference in Los Angeles in 2009 just “by chance”! I love the Universe! and I am so excited that she contributed her beautiful words and wisdom to my blog. Loving you Liz!

Liz’s Top 10 List:

1. I am grateful to my breath for sustaining my life. For being a function of my presence and the flow to which I return again and again when I require grounding calmness and peace.

2. I am grateful to my heart for being the space I connect to with my breath to feel deeply and express my true self. My heart is the place from which I most purely emanate my light.

3. I am grateful to my body for being the vehicle for which I traverse this existence. I give much care and nurturing to my body to ensure that my daily experience is smooth, comfortable and vibrant.

5. I am grateful to food for being a source of absolute love. I receive so much nourishment and energy from what I put into my body but also great joy in the act of preparing, sharing and consuming it.

6. I am grateful to pachamama for being an epic provider of life, to life and for life. Her beauty, resilience and abundance is unparalleled.

7. I am grateful to my partner Dustin, family, friends and community for allowing me the experience of love, nurturing, support, togetherness, joy, laughter, happiness and expression. I am grateful to have people in my life to act as mirrors helping to show me so clearly what I need to see in myself.

8. I am grateful to my ancestors for being the protects of universal knowledge and wisdom. I pray that we as a species are able to remember the power and importance of these ancient peoples and collectively open ourselves to their sacred teachings.

9. I am grateful to universal wisdom for being the force that surrounds all of existence. When I am feeling most clear, I feel the power of this force and the truth in its wisdom. I am in gratitude to universal wisdom for helping us all find our way home.

10. I am grateful to presence for the opportunity to live in the now. For the reminder that the past and future are creations of the mind and I have the opportunity in every moment, at every moment to create and experience the highest potential of and for my life.

For over 10 years, Liz has been in pursuit of health and happiness. She was born and raised in Baltimore, MD where clean food and abundant living was an important part of her upbringing. These themes continue to be the guiding force in her life.

Known to ‘dance to the beat of her own drum,’ Liz has spent much of her life traveling the world, exploring cultures, communities, cuisine and spirituality in search of what feeds the body, mind and soul. She went to University in Sydney and Florence, worked in children’s book publishing in Los Angeles, taught English in Thailand, studied yoga, meditation and Ayurveda in India and Nepal and sacred plant medicine in Peru. She is a certified yoga instructor and has most recently spent time as a chef for communities in Costa Rica, Colorado and Kauai. Liz lives with her partner Dustin on Maui.

Happy New Year 2015 my friends! My wish for you is that this IS your BEST YEAR EVER! How BIG are you dreaming these days? What’s in your heart to BE, BEcome and express in this coming year? We are still in the window of newness and opportunity, so if you are still feeling the transition from 2014 into 2015, it’s okay, totally okay. It’s not an “overnight” thing, but a gradual process that require time and space. One of the rituals that I found to be very helpful in my own transition around the end of 2014/New Year’s Eve was to dedicate a block of time to journal and move through a completion exercise that my friend’s Life Coaches Kat and Elizabeth of Journey Into Being Retreats created. The exercise is guided through an audio Podcast as well as a written text and is a series of reflective questions for your journal. Here it is for you to check out and do, Podcast: Completions.

Both whilst and after doing the Completions exercise, I felt so much lighter and most importantly, more complete with the last 12-month cycle so that I can move forward intentionally, powerfully, clearly and confidently into 2015! I have BIG dreams, visions and am super excited to bring these immaterial realities into manifestation! Woo hoo! And, I look forward to sharing my creative dreams with YOU via my website www.lorieneck.com and here of course.

So far this year, I have been “in” my sunny outdoor studio painting two of my large-scale paintings within my Fire Series and larger Elements Collection. Here’s a little teaser about the amazing story and impetus for my latest body of work.

Fire I-She (excerpt) 3’X4′ Mixed Media on Canvas

The inspiration for Fire and Water.
Legends speak of an ancient culture of advanced beings, submerged in the ocean and buried beneath the sands of time. Not of the lost city of Atlantis, but an entire continent known to us only as “Mu.” The inhabitants of Mu are said to have been artistically and spiritually inclined, and those immortal energies live on in the paintings and vision of Lórien.

Water IV, (excerpt) 4’X5′ Mixed Media on Canvas

I am looking super forward to sharing more about the magical and fascinating story of the Earth across time through my paintings.

Thank you for reading and I invite you to share your contributions via comments and connections and would love to hear your comments here, reach out via my face book page, or email me at lorien@lorieneck.com.

May your year ahead be filled with more love, more peace, more creativity, fun, adventure and play!